July 24 2017

By: Jackie Hook
Monday, July 24, 2017

Related to the freedom to grieve we discussed last week, a second connection between grief and freedom is finding freedom within the grief.  When you allow yourself to feel and express your grief, you are very present to the moment. Within the present moment is freedom. Please here these words of Wendell Berry in “The Peace of Wild Things:”

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free
.

Leave a comment
Name*:
Email:
Comment*:

Comments

Please wait

Previous Posts

March 27 2023

To close this month’s theme of “Grief is Loss in Pieces,” I’ll share these words by author Nick Cave: I have learned that things get better, in time. I know that fundamentally.... I also know th...

March 20 2023

Another way to interpret our theme, “Grief is Loss in Pieces,” is to think of how grief can break us into many pieces. Our work in grief is putting those pieces back together. There is a wonderful ...

March 13 2023

As I continue to think about our theme of “Grief is Loss in Pieces,” I’m reminded of the many stories people have shared with me about their grief journeys. Some talk about how at first they were n...

March 6 2023

This month our theme is “Grief is Loss in Pieces.” Many of you have heard of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These “stages” were neve...

February 27 2023

I close this month’s discussion of “Ask Your Heart/Quiet Your Thoughts” with this quote by teacher and author Spring Washam:  Listen to your heart and trust the direction you are being pulled...

February 20 2023

In order to ask your hearts and quiet your thoughts, here are a few more things you can do: Talk about your grief to make more space in your head. Journal and move your thoughts from the inside...

February 13 2023

As we continue with our theme of “Ask Your Heart/Quiet Your Thoughts,” I want to talk about ways to quiet your thoughts so you can ask your heart. The first way that comes to mind is to breathe. Br...

February 6 2023

This month our theme is “Ask Your Heart/Quiet Your Thoughts.” We live in a culture that seems to value the head over the heart. As I’ve written before, I appreciate the Native American Medicine Whe...

January 30 2023

As we close this month’s theme of “Timeless Healing,” I leave you with a quote by Etty Hillesum. I think this quote speaks to the healing that takes place inside of ourselves outside of time and ti...

January 23 2023

This month’s theme of “Timeless Healing” can be thought of in two ways. The one we’ve already discussed is that there is no prescribed timeline. Another is that healing can feel without time. In mo...